CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & SHANGHAI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GreatPoint Energy and China Wanxiang Holdings today officially announced
the closing of their investment and partnership agreement which was
highlighted during an official signing ceremony between senior U.S. and
Chinese government officials on February 19, 2012.

As part of the transaction, GreatPoint Energy has raised equity
investment and secured project funding of $1.25 billion from Wanxiang to
finance and construct the first phase of a one trillion cubic feet per
year coal to natural gas production facility. The complex will be
located near Turpan, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang) in the
Peoples Republic of China and will utilize GreatPoint Energy’s
proprietary BluegasTM technology. China Petroleum and
Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), China’s largest company by revenue, has agreed
to purchase the natural gas produced from the facility and has already
announced plans to construct a pipeline to deliver the gas to the
eastern provinces of China.

The Bluegas hydromethanation technology developed and owned by
GreatPoint Energy directly converts coal into pipeline quality natural
gas, the cleanest commercial fuel in use globally. GreatPoint Energy’s
proprietary technology operates at the highest efficiency with the least
environmental impact, and produces natural gas at the lowest cost in the
industry. Its water consumption is only half of that of competing
gasification systems. Inherent in the technology is the ability to
capture nearly all emissions, including carbon dioxide, which can be
sequestered and used for oil production through Enhanced Oil Recovery.
The technology is especially well suited for arid regions and where
low-quality, concentrated coal resources are available, such as in
Xinjiang. Together, Wanxiang and GreatPoint Energy also plan to develop
large-scale Bluegas projects at other locations in Xinjiang and in other
regions of China using the Bluegas technology.

Wanxiang and GreatPoint Energy have entered into a joint venture and
have begun engineering the Bluegas complex which, when complete, will
produce one trillion cubic feet (30 billion cubic meters) of natural gas
per year. The first phase is expected to commence operation in 2015 with
an initial annual natural gas production capacity of 30 billion cubic
feet (0.85 billion cubic meters), which will expand to 116 billion cubic
feet (3.4 billion cubic meters) of annual natural gas output within two
years. Sinopec’s agreement to purchase the gas and build the
infrastructure to transport it from Xinjiang to the eastern regions of
China, including Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai, provides
strong support for the project. The Bluegas project is expected to
contribute toward satisfying China’s rapid energy demand growth and
strong desire to improve environmental quality. It will provide
domestic, clean energy derived from a very large and low-cost coal
resource base in the western regions of the country.

Following development of the Bluegas plant in Xinjiang, GreatPoint
Energy intends to expand to other significant natural gas markets in and
outside of China, including Japan, South Korea, India, and Europe,
becoming a major global supplier of natural gas that will compete with
traded Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and long-distance pipeline supplies
in these markets.

As part of the transaction, Wanxiang will become a large shareholder of
GreatPoint and will join the Board of Directors of the Company. Other
Board members include Ray Lane, Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield &
Byers and Executive Chairman of Hewlett Packard, Paul Hanrahan, former
CEO of AES Corp., Bill Wiberg, Partner at Advanced Technology Ventures,
Andrew Perlman, Chairman and CEO, and Daniel Goldman, President and CFO.

“Wanxiang is pleased to be a major shareholder in GreatPoint Energy,”
said Wanxiang Group’s Chairman Lu Guanqiu. “Wanxiang believes that
GreatPoint Energy’s Bluegas technology is currently the world’s most
advanced, lowest cost and most environmentally friendly technology for
transforming coal into natural gas. Wanxiang looks forward to seeing
GreatPoint Energy become a global leader in the supply of clean energy.
I believe the prospects for this business venture are very exciting.”

Dr. Gu Jun Yuan, President of China Wanxiang Holdings, added, “I believe
that this partnership between Wanxiang and GreatPoint Energy represents
the beginning of a very significant opportunity to convert some of the
world’s most abundant and low cost coal supplies into trillions of cubic
feet of clean, valuable natural gas. I look forward to working with
GreatPoint to develop plants around the world.”

“We are building a major new global energy producer for the twenty first
century and focusing on one of the largest, most attractive, and fastest
growing natural gas markets in the world,” said Andrew Perlman, Chief
Executive Officer of GreatPoint Energy. “And we are extremely pleased
that one of the most successful and well-respected companies in China
has become a major shareholder in GreatPoint Energy. Once again,
Wanxiang has shown its leadership in entering new industries with the
potential for tremendous growth. Their vision of embracing technology
innovation to produce clean energy in China on a massive scale will be
an inspiration for the entire world and we are honored to be a part of
it.”

Daniel Goldman, President and Chief Financial Officer of GreatPoint
Energy added, “We are extremely pleased to welcome Wanxiang as one of
our strategic investors and establish a joint venture with them in
China. This agreement provides a tremendous pathway for
commercialization of the Bluegas technology and enables us to develop
and finance multi-billion dollar projects and provide large quantities
of natural gas that will compete with supplies from neighboring
countries. We are particularly excited to contribute toward meeting
China’s rapid natural gas demand growth with American technology and
engineering of a highly efficient and cost-effective clean energy
solution. Over the coming years, we are confident that this partnership
will create thousands of new high-quality engineering, technical and
construction jobs in the U.S. and China as we build-out large-scale,
environmentally attractive gas production facilities.”

About China Wanxiang

Wanxiang was founded in 1969 by its Chairman Lu Guanqiu and is now one
of the largest private companies in China. Wanxiang is a diversified
manufacturing enterprise with interests in equipment and automotive
parts manufacturing, where it has become one of the largest global
suppliers, clean energy, financial services, agricultural products,
natural resources, real estate and investments. The company operates
facilities in 23 provinces in China and over 40 countries around the
world. In the United States, Wanxiang owns or controls 29 companies and
has nearly 6,000 employees. Wanxiang is embarking upon a major
development in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region where it anticipates
investing 160 billion RMB (US$25 billion) through 2020, including the
development of projects utilizing the Bluegas technology to convert coal
to natural gas, and hiring thousands of employees. For more information
visit Wanxiang.com.

About GreatPoint Energy

GreatPoint Energy produces clean, low-cost natural gas from coal,
petroleum coke, and biomass utilizing its Bluegas™ catalytic
hydromethanation process. Bluegas operates at significantly higher
efficiency than competing technologies and benefits from very low water
usage, a superior environmental footprint, nearly complete carbon
capture, and a much lower overall cost of production. The natural gas
that GreatPoint produces is far less expensive than liquefied natural
gas (LNG) and can be transported through existing pipeline
infrastructure. It is interchangeable with drilled natural gas and LNG
for all applications, including power generation, industrial use,
residential and commercial heating, and the production of chemicals. The
company is backed by leading strategic investors including China
Wanxiang Holdings, Dow Chemical, Peabody Energy, AES, and Suncor Energy,
and financial investors, such as Citi Alternative Investments, Kleiner
Perkins Caufield and Byers, Khosla Ventures, Advanced Technology
Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. For more information visit GreatPointEnergy.com.